Thermoplastic resins have been extruded to form fibers, films and webs for a number of years. The most common thermoplastics for these applications are polyolefins, particularly polypropylene and polyethylene, though each material has its characteristic advantages and disadvantages vis a vis the properties desired in the final products.
Nonwoven fabrics are one type of product which can be made from such polymers and are useful for a wide variety of applications such as personal care products like diapers, feminine hygiene products and incontinence products, infection control products, garments and many others. The nonwoven fabrics used in these applications are often in the form of laminates having various numbers of layers of meltblown fabric, spunbond fabric and/or films like spunbond/meltblown/spunbond (SMS) laminates, SMMS laminates, spunbond/film (SF) and SFS laminates and even laminates having 6 or more layers.
One disadvantage to, in particular, SF laminates, is that they can delaminate under certain conditions. Such delamination is, of course, undesirable, as it can result in product failure. There remains a need for a spunbond/film laminate which is lightweight and thin yet also provides adequate adhesion between the layers such that delamination does not occur.
It is an object of this invention to provide laminates having at least one layer of a nonwoven fabric with at least one layer of a film where the laminate exhibits greater delamination or peel strength than heretofore known similar laminates.